


The Backrooms

by moonybamboony



Category: Hermitcraft
Genre: (seriously big big derealization tw for the backrooms!!), Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood, Body Horror, Gen, Gore, Horror, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Mental Instability, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paranoia, Tags Are Hard, The Backrooms - Freeform, but like the comfort doesn't come for a while, he/they pronouns for ex, horror isn't the main point of the fic but it is there, if i actually make it to the ending, mostly switching between chapters, npg hasn't shown up yet but he will i promise, unreality
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 20:54:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30094998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonybamboony/pseuds/moonybamboony
Summary: Disclaimer: I have known of the Backrooms for 2 days and wrote this on 3 hours of sleep.This wasn't what Xisuma intended when he banned Evil X two years ago. But intentions aside, Ex has been trapped in the Backrooms for years now, an endless labyrinth of liminal spaces where time and space don't work right, and you are never truly safe from hostile Entities that are far worse than any Minecraft mob. Though Ex managed to survive for this long, they aren't going to be able to make it much longer before they get killed or go insane. But there's no known way to escape the Backrooms, and Ex certainly isn't going to get out on their own.
Relationships: Evil Xisuma & NPC Grian
Comments: 8
Kudos: 15





	The Backrooms

**Author's Note:**

> I wasn't kidding about the disclaimer. I first heard of the Backrooms 2 days ago and immediately ate up as much lore as I physically could.  
> Needless to say, this isn't going to be accurate to canon Backrooms lore, because  
> 1\. I just don't know enough about it to portray it accurately  
> 2\. My memory is like swiss cheese, I'm not going to remember every way you can travel or noclip between levels.  
> I also just made a lot of shit up. And I might edit this after posting.  
> Also, I know I already said it in the tags, but I feel like it's important enough to restate:  
> SERIOUS UNREALITY/DEREALIZATION TRIGGER WARNING!! Please stay safe, and if this is triggering for you then don't read this fic.  
> Anyways enjoy my weird AU no one asked for!

_ "For Xisuma, or anyone else who finds this." _

Xisuma carefully unfolded the torn sheet of paper. Something fell out of it, a small square thing wrapped in a stained scrap of fabric. He unfolded that, too, and realized that it was some kind of SD card. Picking up the paper again, he read the scribbled words over and over, trying to make sense of what he'd found at spawn.

_ "Not sure if this will make it through. If it does, then… I don't have anything else to say, everything is in that card. Although, if I'm being honest, I wouldn't be surprised if noclipping it out of the backrooms fucked it up. _

_ Sorry, I don't know what to write to you. Everything in my journal is disjointed sentences. I'm not used to writing coherently. _

_ Just in case the card doesn't work - I love you, Xisuma. I'm sorry about everything. But I'll probably never see you again. _

_ Who am I kidding, this isn't going to work. I've just made my camera useless. _

_ -EX" _

"So it's from a camera, then…"

X turned on his computer and carefully plugged the card into the card reader. Opening the files, he saw that the first item was a video. Before he could convince himself not to, Xisuma let the first recording play.

~

The camera was pointed at the bottom half of a wall. A bit of what looked like gray-brown carpet was visible in front of it, while the wall itself was blank, and painted a dull beige color.

The camera shook a bit as someone presumably picked it up. It then turned, showing that the room was spacious and empty, the walls all just as blank as the first other than a few grates. A few support beams, painted the same color as the walls, stood in a wide grid pattern across the room. Despite the apparent mundaneness of the room, something about the setting gave X an unsettling feeling. Like he was looking at something vaguely familiar, but distinctly  _ not right. _

A blurry figure was fumbling with the camera that they were now pointing at themself. Eventually the movement and shuffling sounds stopped, and what Xisuma instantly recognized as Evil X's face came into focus.

Ex looked… strangely the same as Xisuma remembered him. He didn't though, not really. His hair looked dirty and damp. His face didn't seem to bear any new scars, but there was a smudge of blood on his cheek. His clothes were clearly worn out, stained with blood and dirt, and ripped up around the hems. Yet his features hadn't changed a bit. His hair was the exact same length as X remembered, just brushing past his shoulders, and his face was the same, still youthful. But something about him seemed so different than when Xisuma had banned him; Ex's eyes constantly scanned the room, his shoulders slumped, though his muscles were clearly tensed, ready to run. He looked exhausted, though he technically showed no physical signs of it.

"Right. Uh...hey." Ex's voice was raspy and hushed, as if he was afraid of speaking too loudly. After a second, he scoffed. "Void, this is stupid."

The video ended.

  
  


Hands shaking, Xisuma played the next one.

~

Ex was in the same spot in the same room as before, so X could assume that not much time had passed. "Guess I should at least explain what I'm doing," he stated. "I found this camera in- well, I found it on a corpse, to be honest."

_ He what?? _

Ex chuckled humorlessly. "Sometimes it seems like you see those more than you see living people. Though it still barely happens." He wrinkled his nose. "I don't know if it makes it better or worse that they don't even rot."

Xisuma was stunned. None of what Ex had said added up in the slightest, but he let the video continue to play anyway.

"There wasn't anything on the camera, so I don't feel too bad about taking it. I mean, she obviously didn't need it anymore."

He sighed, leaning back against the wall. "I don't really know why I'm doing this. I mean, the chances anyone would find this when I die are slim to none, even less likely that they'd care." Ex was silent for a while. "Anything to keep myself sane, I guess. Don't want to end up like those who couldn't."

He looked directly at the camera and gave it a lifeless smile before ending the recording.

  
  


Not giving himself long to process everything Ex had said, Xisuma played the next one.

~

Ex was in a similar room as he was before, though this one was somewhat smaller. He was walking with the camera pointed at him, a grin on his face. This time, it looked genuine.

"I got a watch too," he said in the same hushed tone as before. "I got it- well, I got it off of the same body, I just forgot to say before."

Xisuma's heart sank at how casually- no,  _ enthusiastically- _ Ex mentioned taking things from a corpse. Sure, Ex tended to lack sympathy and understanding, but X didn't ever think he was that truly uncaring.

"I don't know how long I've been here- I mean, I still don't, it's not like the watch tells the date or anything. But look-" Ex glanced around before plopping himself onto the carpeted floor. He flipped to the other side of the camera, presumably changing the side it was recording from, and put his hand in front of it. "I got- oh yeah, I can flip it back and forth now-" Ex flipped the camera several times to show it off, until he let it stay showing his hand again. He held the watch up to the lens, the small clock face barely coming into focus before he flipped the camera to his face again, still smiling. "I'm going to start tracking how much time has passed. I can see how fast time is going! I mean, I knew it was weird, that was kinda obvious, but like-" he let out a breathy laugh. "This is great."

~

The next recording started with the camera pointed at the watch face, this time in focus. The only sound was Ex's breathing, and the faint buzz of electricity. The time showed 3:55, and as X stared at the watch, he realized that the second hand was hardly moving. Pausing the video, X took out his communicator and compared the speed the seconds changed to Ex's when he played it again- in about 20 seconds, the second hand showed barely one second passing.

"It isn't broken," Ex whispered. "You see how slowly it's going?"

There were a few more seconds (less than one second?) of silence until the video ended.

  
  


Xisuma exhaled, leaning back in his desk chair. So these were videos from somewhere where people don't age, dead bodies don't rot, finding dead people is more common than finding living people, and time passes too slowly.

Frankly, it all sounded like Ex's sick idea of a prank to Xisuma.

As he thought about it, X realized that it wouldn't be too hard a prank to pull off. Would an abandoned office building, fake blood, some old clothes, and a broken watch really be that difficult for Ex to get his hands on?

Sighing, X just let the next video play.

~

Ex seemed to be in a dark hall, the camera pointed at the floor. The only sound was heavy breathing, and he was slowly moving backwards. Gradually, he pointed the angle of the camera upwards, until the thing he was backing away from was in view.

Xisuma had to clamp his hand over his mouth to stop himself from screaming.

At the other end of the hall was a humanoid figure, but its limbs were thin and horribly contorted, as if they'd been badly reshaped to allow the creature to stand on all fours. Its general shape almost resembled a dog, yet the rest of its features couldn't be further from one. Its face was obscured, but something glinted behind the curtain of long black hair, reflecting the small amount of light that was present in the hall. Something that looked sharp _. _ It was completely still, but the way it was poised told X that it was just waiting for the moment to pounce.

Ex's breathing was growing even more frantic, but his pace was still painfully slow and steady.

He let out a tiny whimper.

The thing growled, before taking off and sprinting towards Ex.

Ex yelled, turning and running in the other direction. The camera was moving too quickly for X to clearly see what was happening, the hall a blur with the motion of the hand holding it as Ex ran.

Suddenly, the camera dropped to the ground, along with a thud that must have been Ex's body hitting the floor. A loud snarl sounded, and Ex screamed. From the blurs of color on the screen, X could only tell that Ex was scrambling to get up and escape. For a split second, Xisuma could make out the beast's face - empty eyes and a gaping mouth lined with huge, razor-sharp teeth.

The sound of teeth tearing into flesh was muffled by Ex screeching again, the sound echoing off of the walls of the narrow hallway. The scene blurred again as the camera fell, now pointing at the ceiling, with only sound to give X any clue as to what was happening. It was a mess of growls and grunts and screams, finally coming to an end with what sounded like metal cleaving through meat and bones, and a horrible, half-human, half canine shriek.

Then, once again, Ex's breathing was the only sound.

That, and what sounded like something between a whimper and a sob.

After a minute, Ex wrapped his hand around the camera again. His palm covered the lens, meaning Xisuma could only see a black screen. From his grunts and slow, heavy footsteps, it seemed that Ex was struggling to make his way through the hall. Eventually, his footsteps stopped, followed by another, louder thump.

Xisuma assumed that he had fallen from fainting, until Ex set the camera on the floor again, facing him. Ex was sitting on the floor, leaning heavily against the wall, seemingly in the same room where he'd showed off his watch, or a similar one. He was bleeding heavily from his upper right arm, plus smaller scratches were scattered across the rest of his body.

With what seemed to be a huge amount of effort, Ex lifted his head and reached into a backpack next to him with his good arm. It took a few minutes, but eventually he'd fished out a few bottles of some clear liquid and a roll of bandages. Squinting at the screen, Xisuma was able to make out the words "Almond Water" scribbled on the duct-tape labels.

After resting for a few seconds, Ex picked up one of the bottles, struggling to open it with one hand, eventually settling for using his teeth instead. But instead of drinking it, Ex poured it on his arm, gritting his teeth as he rubbed it into the open wound. He then wrapped the bandage around it, paying no attention to how his torn sleeve bunched up under it. Once the wound was 'treated,' Ex picked up another bottle of the so-called "almond water" and drank the entire contents of it.

It seemed that the almond water was some kind of healing potion, Xisuma noted. Though, why Ex didn't just drink all of it instead of adding the unnecessary pain of applying it directly to the wound, Xisuma wasn't sure.

Meanwhile, in the recording, Ex sighed and tucked the unused bottles back into his bag, hesitating before he haphazardly shoved the empty ones in too. Apparently choosing to ignore the smaller cuts, Ex curled in on himself and started to cry. He hugged his knees against his chest with his good arm, letting the injured one rest on top of the other, shielding his face. Ex's chest shook with quiet sobs as he rocked slightly from side to side.

He cried for a few more minutes before he wiped his eyes and reached over to the camera.

The video ended.

  
  


Xisuma took a deep breath.

If this was still a prank, then it was a  _ very _ dedicated one.

Not yet allowing the emotions from the first few videos to get to him, X picked up Ex's letter again, scanning over the words for what he was looking for.

_ "...wouldn't be surprised if noclipping it out of the backrooms fucked it up…" _

"Backrooms," Xisuma said quietly. An odd term to refer to what looked like an office building, but he supposed there was a chance that it referred to wherever Ex was in the videos.

Picking up his comm again, he typed a message to the public chat.

**< Xisuma> Has anyone heard of the "backrooms?"**

**Author's Note:**

> Gimme that constructive criticism I live for it!  
> Please correct & educate me on Backrooms lore! I might not change something I got wrong cause it would be inconvenient or would interfere with the plot, but I want to learn more about it!  
> Also,,, I definitely take plot suggestions and theories. I know the general story I want to achieve, but I still haven't figured out most of the logistics and stuff so I don't know how this is going to work.  
> Hope you enjoyed!  
> (My tumblr: @moonybamboony)


End file.
